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Jun 28, 2012

I've always been enamoured by big cities and New York has been my favourite for a while now. As excited as I was to be in New York, I also had other agendas for the trip. I wanted to hit at least one exclusively vegan place everyday. By the end of the seven days, I was ready never to eat a cupcake again. Just as I was sorting through the pictures the other day, K and I had a cupcake craving and I just had to make some. And I thought I was done!

I had a two page list with streets and avenues, phone numbers and websites to make sure I found every single one of them. Of course Google Maps eventually won over paper maps, but I can't get myself to trust technology yet.

What I observed is that vegan food at vegan places is much more expensive than I thought it would be. May be even more expensive that what it should be. There is a price to pay for eating healthier but I didn't imagine it would be that much of a difference. Sometimes it puts people off that vegan cafes are so expensive but I wish everyone understood what actually is happening with the food and how the subsidies favour the promotion of unhealthy foods like soda, meat and dairy.

A few of my favourites that didn't quite make it to the pictures:

1. The 'Shroom Burger at B.A.D. Burger, Brooklyn - Grilled Portobello with an amazing pepper cream sauce. Just have a Portobello Burger any chance you get anywhere!

Jun 19, 2012

While I was getting ready to travel to the unhealthiest country in the world, I was also making lists of what food I am going to get back. Needless to say I overdid it and wished I had booked myself on an airline that allowed two bags per person. The anxiety associated with weighing the bag at the check-in counter was more than I could handle. I could not imagine taking anything out of the bag.

My moto for this trip was EAT EAT EAT. While I was wary because it involved eating a lot of processed food and adding a tyre or two, I was also looking forward to being there during the berry and grilling season.

Apart from how big the serving sizes are there, the fruits and vegetables are also humongous. Most of them might not have as much flavour as the ones we get here, but it's amusing to see an onion bigger than my hand and a strawberry as big as my palm. The sugary foods aren't as sweet as we make it here in India which is a good thing and they are way ahead on the organic, vegan path. I think our generation in India is going to be the unhealthiest and unfortunately we are aping the wrong choices the Americans made.

A typical Canadian confectionery the Nanaimo Bar is available vegan and gluten free

(By Sweets from the Earth) at certain cafes in Toronto. It has a sweet peppermint filling which is sandwiched between melted chocolate on top and a chocolate wafer-crumb layer at the bottom. Totally gave me a tooth ache, but totally worth it!

My dear friend Lisa Pitman who took out time to meet me on a working day!